Memory Flashcards
What is the multi-store model of memory and its features?
A linear model which suggests that information flows through the memory system
The model suggests that our memory is split into three stores linked by processing (sensory register, short-term memory and long-term memory)
Each store has its own characteristics in terms of coding, capacity and duration
What is the definition of coding?
The format in which information is stored in a memory store
What is the definition of capacity?
The amount of information that can be held in a memory store
What is the meaning of duration?
The length of time that information can be held in a memory store
What is the sensory store?
Memory store for each of our 5 senses.
Receives and stores information from our environment via our senses
What does information in the sensory store needs in order to be transferred into short term memory?
Attention
What is the coding of the sensory memory store and who is the researcher?
MODALITY SPECIFIC
The information is stored in the form it arrives, each of the 5 senses has its own store
CROWDER
Found that the sensory register only holds info in the iconic store for a few milliseconds, 2-3 seconds in the echoic store
What is the capacity of the sensory memory store and who is the researcher?
VERY LARGE
SPERLING
3 X 4 grid letters were flashes onto a screen for a small moment, after a tone was sounded which indicated which row participants had to recall. Results indicated that participants could effectively process all sensory based information and recall the allocated rows
What is the duration of sensory memory and who is the researcher?
0.5-3 seconds
- limited, dependent on age
WALSH AND THOMAS
-found that the iconic sensory store has an average duration of 0.5-3s, decreases as individuals get older.
What is short term memory?
A limited capacity store which receives information from the sensory register and temporarily stores it.
What is the coding of our short term memory and who is the researcher?
ACOUSTIC
BADDLEY
Gave different lists of words to 4 groups of participants to remember
G1= acoustically similar words
G2=acoustically dissimilar words
G3=semantically similar words
G4= semantically dissimilar words
- found that participants performed worse with acoustically similar words, after having to recall immediately, caused by acoustic confusion in their STM
- found that participants performer worse with semantically similar words, after having to recall after 20 minutes, caused semantic confusion in their LTM
What is the capacity of our short term memory and who is the researcher?
7 +/- 2 ITEMS
MILLER
- digit span test
-participants read a series of numbers and repeated them back to the researcher in the same order
- number of digits they had to recall increased
-capacity of STM can be increased by chunking
What is the duration of our short term memory and who is the researcher?
18 -30 SECONDS MAXIMUM
PETERSON AND PETERSON
- 24 undergrad students, each in 8 trials
- participants were given a letter triagram to remember and also a 3 digit number
- participants had to count backwards in threes from that 3 digit number until they were told to stop
- told to stop counting after different amounts of time
- after 3s the average recall was 80%, after 18s the average recall was 3%
What is long term memory?
Permanent memory store.
Receives information from short term memory
What is the coding of our long term memory and who is the researcher?
SEMANTIC
BADDELEY
- when they recalled the word list after 20 mins, from their LTM, participants performed worse with semantically similar words
- caused semantic confusion in their long term memory.
What is the capacity of our long term memory and who is the researcher?
UNLIMITED
- information may be lost due to decay but losses do not occur due to limitations of capacity
LINTON
- kept a daily diary of events on cards, associated each event with a keyword
-could recall any days events by being given a key word to the accuracy of 70% even up to 7 years later
- shows huge capacity of LTM as an estimated 11,000 items were recorded
What is the duration of our long term memory and who is the researcher?
UNLIMITED / UP TO LIFETIME
BAHRICK ET AL
- 392 American participants aged 17 - 74
- photo recognition/ recall test for names
- participants tested within 15 years illustrated 90% accuracy in the photo recognition task
- after 48 years, participants still illustrated 70% accuracy in the photo recognition task
- emphasises how information in long term memory may last up to a lifetime
How does the case study Clive Wearing SUPPORT the multi-store model of memory?
-contracted a viral infection which resulted in a severe form of amnesia.
-still knew he had children from an earlier marriage and recognises his second wife.
- cannot make any new short term memories, new ones formed only lasted 30 seconds.
-provides evidence to suggest that long term memory is in fact lifetime
- duration of short term memory can be as little as 30 seconds.
How does the Murdock Serial position effect SUPPORT the multi store model of memory?
- Murdock suggested that our ability to recall information usually works on what we learn/ hear first and what we learn/ hear last
-suggestion came from experiments whereby participants were asked to read a list of words and then immediately recall them in any order - results indicated that words at the beginning for the list (primacy effect) and end of the list (recency effect) were recalled better than those in the middle
- supports the multistore model as it shows we have 2 different stores that our memory is broken into.
-increases validity
-primacy effect= long term store
-recency effect= short term store
How does the case study of KF QUESTION the multi store model of memory?
- had amnesia
- found that his short term memory for dugouts was poor when read out loud to him but much better when he read the digits to himself
- difficulty in dealing with verbal based information but a normal ability with visual based information
- suggests that there is more to the short term memory store, STM suggests that it works best with verbals information KF proves this as wrong
-questions/ decreases validity of model
What is the working memory model?
Model that suggests our short term memory is an active processor of information.
Consists of components such as ‘slave systems’ which enable several pieces of information to be held at one time in our short term memory whilst they are being processed
Suggests that we can complete two tasks at the same time (dual tasking) effectively but only if each task requires/ uses a different system. This is due to the small capacity each system has.
What is the central executive within the working memory model?
The component of the model which controls and coordinates the activities of the three other systems, it allocates jobs to other systems and collects the responses
What is the capacity and coding of the central executive system within the working memory model?
Limited capacity
Coding; modality free
What is the visuo-spatial sketch pad within the working memory model?
Process visual and spatial based information
Has been subdivided into:
Visual cache- stores the visual information
Inner scribe- records the spatial information
What is the coding and capacity of the visual-spatial sketch pad?
Coding- visually
Capacity- limited
What is the phonological loop component within the working memory model?
Processes auditory based information, includes both written and spoken material.
Has been subdivided into:
Articulatory process- repeats words/ sounds in a ‘loop’ to keep them present whilst being processed
Phonological store- stores what is heard
What is the coding and capacity of the phonological loop?
Coding- acoustic
Capacity- 2 seconds worth of information
What is the episodic buffer within the working memory model?
Component of the model which brings together material from the other systems into a single memory. It integrates the visual, spatial and verbal information processes by the other systems and maintains a sense of time sequencing ( recording events that are happening)
What is the coding and capacity of the episodic buffer?
Coding; modality free
Capacity; limited
How is the working memory model supported by the case of KF?
- suffered from amnesia
-found that KFs short term memory for digits was poor when read out loud to him, but much better when he read the digits to himself. Difficulties in dealing with verbal based information but a normal ability with visual based information. - provides evidence to suggest that our short term memory is split into separate slave systems as KFs visuospatial sketch pad has worked hade worked but his phonological loop hadn’t.
- increases validity
How does brain scan research support the working memory model?
Paulescu used a PET scan tho record brain activity when participants were either performing verbal tasks or visual tasks.
Results found that different areas of the brain were active during each task. Showed quite clearly that verbal and visual tasks are performed by different brain regions and therefore suggests that the phonological loop has visuosopatial sketch pad are physically separate from each other as the working memory model suggests.
- clearly our short term memory is broken into different slave systems
-increases validity
How does not all components being scientifically tested question the working memory model?
Components such as the central executive and episodic buffer are almost impossible to scientifically tested as they are completely abstract components.
- makes it extremely difficult for researchers to check for validity regarding these components
How are dual task assumptions supported by research?
- when Bradley’s participants carried out visual verbal tasks at the same time (dual task) their performance on each was similar to when they carried out the tasks separately.
When both tasks were visual or both verbal performance on both declined - both visual (or verbal) tasks compete for the same slave system, whereas there is no competition when performing a verbal and visual task together
- shows there must be a separate slave system that processes visual input
What are the different types of long term memory
Episodic memory
Semantic memory
Procedural memory
What are the different slave systems within the working memory model?
Central executive
Phonological loop
Visuospatial sketch pad
Episodic buffer
What is episodic memory?
- long term memory store for personal events
- memories are time stamped, you can remember when they happened
- memories within this store need to be retrieved consciously and with effort
- two areas of the brain are involved :
Prefrontal cortex , neocortex
What is semantic memory?
- long term memory store for our knowledge of the world
- includes facts and our knowledge of what words and concepts mean
- memories are not time stamped, cannot remember when we learnt them.
- information is less personal, memories have to be retrieved deliberately.
- hippocampus may have a role in processing semantic memories although a variety of brain areas are thought to be involved.
What is procedural memory?
- long term memory store for our knowledge of how to do things.
- includes our memories of learnt skills
- recall these memories without conscious or deliberate effort, they can be time stamped depending on how memorable the learning was.
- areas of the brain involved are the cerebellum and motor cortex, both involved in movement
How do the case study of Clive wearing and HM support the different types of long term memory?
- episodic memories in both individuals were severely impaired due to brain damage, semantic memories were relatively unaffected.
- HM could not recall stroking a dog an hour prior to doing so , but understood the concept of what a dog is.
- Clive wearing knew how to read and play music, but could not form new personal memories or recall previous ones.
- provides evidence to suggest that long term memory is in fact broken into multiple stores as they are able to retrieve one type but not another
- increases validity
How does neuroimaging evidence support the different types of long term memory?
- tulving found that different types of memory are associated with different parts of the brain.
- found using PET scans that episodic and semantic memories were both recalled from the prefrontal cortex, however, found that the left prefrontal cortex was involved in recalling semantic memories whereas episodic memories were recalled from the right prefrontal cortex.
- provides evidence to suggest that long term memory is broken into multiple components
- tulving found using PET scans that semantic memories were recalled from the left prefrontal cortex and episodic memories were recalled from the right prefrontal cortex
- increases validity
How do practical applications support the different types of long term memory?
- understanding types of long term memory has allowed psychologists to help people with memory related problems.
- research has shown that memory loss with age is specific to episodic memory.
- Belleville eat all devised an intervention to improve episodic memories in older people.
- trained participants in this intervention performed better on a test of episodic memory after training compared to a control group.
- as treatment based on tulvings theory has been effective it lends validity to tulvings explanation and suggestion that there is more to our long term memory than just one store
How are the different types of long term memory questioned by the research of Cohen and Squire?
- disagreed with Tulving’s division of LTM.
- suggested that our LTM should be split into two types:
Declarative ( memories which we consciously recall)
Non-declarative ( memories which we unconsciously recall) - research suggests that there is more to our LTM than just three types as Tulving suggested.
- could be argued that Tulving’s concept of our LTM is incomplete.
What are the two explanations for forgetting?
Interference theory
Retrieval failure theory
What is interference theory?
Forgetting occurs when tow pieces of information,still disrupt/ block each other. This can result in forgetting one or both pieces of information
Interference is more likely to occur when information is similar.
Interference has been proposed mainly as an explanation for forgetting in long term memory
What are the two types of interference?
Proactive interference
Retroactive interference
What is proactive interference?
Forgetting occurs when older memories already stored disrupt the recall of newer memories
What is retroactive interference?
Forgetting occurs when newer memories disrupt the recall of older memories already stored.
How does the research of McGeoch and McDonald support interference theory?
Studied retroactive interference by changing the amount of similarity between two sets of materials. Participants had to learn a list of 10 words until they could remember with 100% accuracy. They then learn a new list. 6 groups of participants who had to learn different types of new lists.
Group 1- synonyms
Group 2- antonyms
Group 3- words unrelated to the original ones
Group 4- consonant syllables
Group 5- three digit numbers
Group 6- no new list- control condition, participants just rested.
The group with the second list of synonyms recalled less.
This study provides evidence to suggest that during recall of information, individuals are more likely to forget/ interference is more likely to occur when two pieces of information are similar.
Increases validity
How does the research of Baddeley and Hitch support interference theory?
Asked rugby players to recall the names of the teams they had played against during a rugby season. The players all played for the same time internal but the number of intervening games varied because some players missed matches due to injury. Players who played the most games had the poorest recall.
This study further provides evidence to suggest that individuals are likely to forget/ interference is more likely to occur when recalling lots of information, including information which might have similarities.
Increases validity.
How do practical applications support the interference theory?
Research on retroactive interference has been used to make improvements when questioning eye witnesses. For examples. If an individuals was to witness a crime and was then interviewed on several occasions, information discusses at those interviews may interfere with original memory for the material. As a result of this, improvements to interviewing eyewitnesses can reduce the chances of false memories being recalled during eyewitness accounts and therefore in the process, there could be a lower chance of wrongful convictions and miscarriages of justice.
What is retrieval failure theory?
Forgetting occurs when we dont have the necessary cues to access memory/ a piece of information.
Cues are known as a ‘trigger’ of information that allow us to access a memory. Such as cues can be meaningful or indirectly linked.
When information is learnt or stored, cues are stored at the same time. If these cue are then not present at the time of recall, it can result in retrieval failure and therefore forgetting
Tulving reviewed research into retrieval failure and summarised a consistent pattern which he called encoding specificity principle. This suggests that a cue has to be present during encoding (learning) and retrieval (recalling) for it to be effective.
What are the two types of cues?
Context cues
State cues
What are context cues?
External environmental factors at the time of encoding information which can provide a trigger for remembering eg. Location, sound, music
When these context cues are not present during retrieval, this leads to context- dependent forgetting
What are state cues?
Internal factors at the time f encoding information which can also provide a trigger for remembering eg emotional or physical state
When these state cues are not present during retrieval, this leads to state-dependent forgetting
How does the research of Godden and Baddeley support context- dependent failure?
Replicated their underwater experiment but used a recognition test instead of recall, participants had to say whether they recognised a word to read to them from a list, instead of retrieving it for themselves. When recognition was tested there was no context- dependent effect, performance was the same in all 4 conditions.
This suggests that retrieval failure is a limited explanation for forgetting because it only applies when a person has to recall information rather than recognise it
How does the research of Carter and Cassagday support state- dependent forgetting?
Gave antihistamine drugs to their participants. The antihistamines had a mild sedative effect making the participants slightly drowsy. This creates an internal psychological state different from the ‘normal’ state of being awake and alert. The participants had to learn a list of words and passages of prose and then recall the information, again creating 4 conditions;
1. Learn on drug, recall on drug
2. Learn on drug, recall not on drug
3. Learn not on drug, recall on drug.
4. Learn not on drug, recall not on drug.
This provides evidence to suggest that we will forget there is a change in out physical state
How has context dependent forgetting been questioned by research?
Baddeley argued that context effect s are not actually as strong as retrieval failure suggest. Different contexts need to be drastically different before an impact is actually seen. For example, in Godden and Baddeleys research, learning something in land versus underwater is a significantly different context compared to learning something in one rooom and recalling in a different room. Therefore, it could be argued that retrieval failure is an incomplete explanation of forgetting which is unable to explain forgetting in everyday situation
How do practical applications support retrieval failure?
The concept of retrieval cues has been used to help develop the cognitive interview which is a technique designed to increases accurate recall of eyewitnesses to grimed. The aim is to give the witness as many retrieval cues as possible to trigger their memories of the event. As a result of this, improvements to interviewing eyewitnesses can reduce the chances of false memories being recalled during eyewitness accounts and therefore in the process, there could be a lower chance of wrongful convictions and miscarriages of justice.
How is context dependent forgetting questioned by the research of baddeley?
Argued that context effects are actually not as strong as retrieval failure suggests. Different contexts need to be drastically different before an impact is actually seen.
For example, in golden and baddeleys research, learn in something in land versus underwater is a significantly different context compared to learning something in one room and recalling in a different room.
Could be argued that retrieval failure is an incomplete explanation for forgetting which is unable to explain forgetting in everyday situations.
What are the two factors that affect eyewitness testimony?
Misleading information
Anxiety
What is misleading information?
Refers to incorrect information given to an eyewitness usually after the event has taken place.
Take many forms including leading questions and post-event discussion
What are leading questions?
Refers to questions which imply a certain answer due to the way it is phrased/ worded.
Explain the research into leading questions.
Loftus and palmer
Arranged for 45 participants, students, to watch film clips of car accidents and then asked them questions about the accident. In the ciritical question (leading or misleading`0 participant were asked to describe how fast the cars were travelling.
“About how fast were the cars going when they hit each other”
There were 5 groups of participants and each group had a different verb hit, thw others had contacted, bumped, collided, smashed.
Mean estimate will calculated for each participants group. The verb contacted resulted in a mean estimate of 31.8 mph for the verb smashed the mean was 40.5mph.
The leading question biased the eyewitness’ recall of an event
What are some strengths and weaknesses of the research of Loftus and Palmer on leading questions?
Weaknesses-
Lacks generalisability, only used studying students, cannot generalise findings to other ages as sample is limited
Used an artificial lab experiment, unrealistic procedure, cannot use findings to understand how people will behave in real life
Strengths-
Easy to replicate, only asked participants questions and standardised procedure, able to check for consistency of results
Why do leading questions affect eye witness testimony?
response bias
- wording of the question has no real effect on memories, it just influences how people answer
substitution explanation
- wording of the question does have a real effect on memories, instead of just influencing an answer
What is post event discussion?
Occurs when there is more than one witness to an event and they discuss what they have seen with cowitnesses or other people.
Might influence the accuracy of each witnesses recall of the event.
What is the research into post event discussion?
Gabbert et al
Studied participants in pairs, each participant watched a video of the same crime filmed from different points of view.
Meant that each participant could see elements that others couldn’t.
For example, only one participant could see the title of a book carried by a young woman .
All participants had a discussion afterwards before being asked to recall what they had seen
Research found that 71% had mistakenly recalled aspects of the event that they did not see in the video but had picked up in the discussion.
Control group= 0%
Evidence of memory conformity
What are strengths and weaknesses of the research by Gabbert et al by post event discussion?
Weaknesses;
Lacks generalisability, all from a university in UK, findings cannot be generalised to other ages, cultures, nationalities etc.
lacks ecological validity, unrealistic task, cannot apply findings to how people would behave in real life.
Deception, were unaware that they were only being shown the video from one angle, psychologist wasn’t fulfilling their duty of care.
Strengths;
Standardised procedure, can easily be replicated as everything was kept the same for each participant, can easily check for consistency of results
Why does post event discussion affect eye witness testimony?
memory contamination
Suggests that memories of the event are genuinely distorted following a post-event discussion
memory conformity
Suggests that memories of the event are not distorted, instead eyewitness recall changes as they want to fit in and go along with thr accounts of co witnesses
How do practical applications support misleading information?
- research conducted by loftus and palmer demonstrated how leading questions can have an effect on an individuals memory of an event
- has key applications for the legal system by emphasising that police need to be careful regarding how they word questions during interviews
- as a result improvements have been made to the legal system when interviewing eyewitnesses which can help reduce the chances of false memories being recalled
- could result in lower rates of wrongful convictions and miscarriages of justice
How is misleading information questioned by the research of Anastasi and Rhodes?
- suggested that there are individual differences in the extent to which people are influenced by misleading information.
- study results indicated that people aged 18-25 and 35-45 were more accurate when identifying people of their own age
- could be argued that concepts proposed about misleading information are incomplete and shopgirls consider certain factors which influence its impact
How do research and concepts proposed by loftus which are socially sensitive question misleading information?
- suggested that eyewitness testimony accounts are disrupted by misleading information
- was called as a defence for real life cases and explained how false memories have been formed due to misleading information.
- has resulted in witnesses and victims being undermined in court, specifically in cases of sexual abuse where women were accuses of false memory syndrome
What is anxiety?
A state of emotional ad physical arousal.
Emotions include worried thoughts and feelings of tension.
Physical changes include increased heart rate and sweatiness.
What his Yerkes-Dodson law?
- the relationship between emotional arousal and performance is shaped like an inverted U shape
- suggest that performance will increase with arousal but only up to a certain poubnt
- when arousal levels go higher than this optimal point, performance decreases rapidly.
What effect does anxiety have on eye witness testimony?
If the eyewitness has gone through too high or low levels of anxiety then their performance will be low, meaning their ability to recall memory will also be low.
How does anxiety have a negative effect on recall?
The arousal we experience prevents us from paying attention to important cues and details
Example- weapons during an event can create anxiety and prevent us from recalling cues
weapon focus effect= anxiety of seeing a weapon focuses all our attention onto it
What is the research by johnson and Scott on how anxiety can have a negative effect on recall?
- participants believed they were taking part in a lab study
- while seated in a waiting room participants in a low-anxiety condition heard a causal conversation in the next room and the saw a man walk past them carrying a pen and with grease on his hand.
- participant in high-anxiety condition overheard a heated argument, heard glass break and saw a man walk out with a knife with blood all over it.
- participants later picked out a man from a set of 50 photos to try and identify the man that walked out.
-40% who had seen the man carrying the pen were able to identify him
- 33% could identify the man holding the bloody knife
-evidence of weapon focus effect.
What are the strengths and weaknesses of the research by johnson and Scott on anxiety?
Weaknesses;
Lacks generalisability, only studies older university adults, findings cannot be generalised to other ages nationalities cultures etc
Deception, believed they were in a lab study
Protection from harm, they were not in the same psychological state after as they were before, psychologists were not fulfilling their duty of care
Informed consent, weren’t told about the true aims of the study, could not have fully consented
Right to withdraw, did not know the experiment had started, could not have known that were able to ask to leave and therefore had no choice but to be involved in the study.
Strengths;
Easy to replicate, used a standardised procedure, can check for reliability/ consistency of results.
How does anxiety have a positive effect on recall?
Suggests that the arousal we experience increases our alertness and awareness via the fight or flight response.
Prepares our body and increases alertness, can improve our memory of an event as awareness of cues is increased
What is the research by Yuille and Cutshall on anxiety having a positive effect on recall?
- conducted a study on actual shooting in a gun shop in Canada.
- shop owner shot a thief dead
- 21 witnesses, 13 in study
- were interviewed 3-5 months after the incident and these interviews were compared with the original police interviews at the time of the shooting.
- accuracy was determined by the number of detains reported in each account.
- witnesses were also asked to rate how stressed they had felt at the time of the incident and whether they had any emotional problems since the event.
- witnesses were very accurate in their accounts and there was little change in the amount recalled or accuracy after 5 months
- participants that reported high levels of stress were most accurate (88% compared to 75% for loess stressed)
- suggests that anxiety does not have a detrimental effect on the accuracy of eyewitness testimony.
What are strengths and weaknesses of the research by Yuille and Cutshall on anxiety?
Strengths=
None
Weaknesses=
Lacks generalisability, only Canadian individuals, cannot generalise findings to people of other cultures races, aged, nationalities and backgrounds.
Difficult to replicate, is a naturally occurring independent variable, a natural experiment, difficult to check for consistency of results.
Lacks internal validity, waited 3-5 months before follow up interview, cannot be sure that the nt variable is the only thing causing the anxiety
How is anxiety having a negative effect on recall supported by research of Valentine and Mesout?
- carried out a study to investigate the impact of anxiety on recall
- visitors to the horror labyrinth in the London dungeons wore heart monitors which confirmed whether the were experiencing anxiety or not.
- participants were then categorised into having high anxiety or low anxiety and were given the task to describe a person encountered in the labyrinth
- results indicated that 17% of participants who experienced high anxiety could correctly identify actor in a line up
- 75% could do this in the low anxiety group
- study provides evidence to suggest that anxiety can have a negative effect on recall, could potentially disrupt the accuracy of eyewitness testimony
How is weapon focus effect questioned by research?
- pickle conducted an experiment using a gun, scissors, a wallet or a chicken as hand held items in a video set in a salon
- participants memory of the video was significantly poorer in the high unusualness conditions (gun or a chicken)
- research suggests that the weapon focus effect and tunnel theory might actually be due to surprise or the unusualness of the situation rather than being a result of anxiety experienced
What is cognitive interview?
A method of interviewing eyewitness to help them retrieve more accurate memories
What are the 4 more techniques within the cognitive interview?
Report everything
Reinstate the context
Reverse the order
Change perspective
What is the technique report everything and why should it be used?
Witnesses are asked to report every detail, even if they think that the detail is irrelevant or unimportant
Why?
These details might be important and might trigger recollection of other important memories within the event.
What is the technique reinstate the context and why should it be used`/
Witness should return to the original crime scene ‘in their mind’ and imagine the environment and their emotions
Why?
This is based on retrieval failure theory in particular context dependent forgetting.
If one can remember the context of the event, they might be able to recall details learnt within it more effectively (provides context cue to help recall)
What is the technique reverse the order and why should it be used?
Interviewer may ask the witness to work backwards from the end of the inside not the start
Why?
Prevents people reporting their expectations of the event must have happened rather than the actual event
disrupts schema interference
What is the technique change the perspective and why should it be used?
Try to describe then event from the viewpoint of others who were there at the time e.g describing what they think other witnesses might have seen.
Why?
disrupts schema interference with recall
The schema you have with a particular setting might generate expectations of what would have happened
- adopting the viewpoint of others can also encourage recall of events that may otherwise have been missed
What is the enhanced cognitive interview?
Fisher developed some additional element to focus on the social dynamics of interaction.
-the interviewer should know when to establish eye contact and relinquish it
- techniques should reduce eyewitness anxiety, minimise distractions, get the witness to speak slowly, ask open ended questions etc are all implemented in this enhanced version.
How is the cognitive interview supported by the research of Gieselman?
-participants watched a film of a violent crime
-after 48 hours, were interviewed by a policeman using one of three methods; the cognitive interview, the standard interview or an interview using hypnosis
- number of facts accurately recalled and number of errors made were recorded
-results indicated that participants correctly remembered more details during the cognitive interview (41.5 on average) compared to standard interview (29.4 on average)
- participants also incorrectly recalled more details during the cognitive interview compare to the standard interview.
- provides evidence to suggest that cognitive interviews cause participants to correctly recall information more than standard interviews.
**counter argument- however participants also incorrectly recalled details more than in a standard interview
How is the cognitive interview supported by practical applications?
- following development of the cognitive interview, the enhanced cognitive interview was later developed with some extra Addison’s which focus on the dynamics of social interactions.
- As a result of this practical application, we are able to continue making developments within eye witness testimony interview techniques to further help witnesses recall crucial details of events.
- could result in lower rates of wrongful convictions and miscarriages of justice.
How is the fact that cognitive interviews are time consuming a negative?
- police officers must be trained in order to run a cognitive interview with limited time and resources to provide this within the forces in itself
-cognitive interview also take longer than standard interviews as time is needed to develop a good report with the witness - weakness as it means the police may be reluctant to use this method and choose alternatives
- accuracy of EWT accounts may not experience much improvement
How can some elements of EWT be questioned by the research of Milne and Bull?
- found that each of the four techniques alone resulted in better recall compared to a standard police interview
- results also indicated that using a specific combination of report everything and reinstating the context produced better recall than many other elements or combinations of them.
-questions the effectiveness of the cognitive interview as a way of improving the accuracy of EWT suggesting that only certain elements should be sued when using one to question eyewitnesses
